Don't Laugh
by CoronaHelios45
Summary: Gajeel was sure he would win the game. I mean, let's be honest, he hardly ever laughs at anything. But that's until Miss Madness decided to cut in. Why does Fira have to be such a sadist?


**After so long, I've finally done it. I've finally finished one of my many Fairy Tail stories. And I had lots of fun writing this particular one. Hope you guys enjoy, this is the first fanfiction I'll be submitting!**

 **Disclaimer- Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. I only own my OC Fira. Check out her description on my profile.**

Don't Laugh

Gajeel didn't know why he decided to play the game. Sure, it was a Try not to Laugh challenge and he was 100% percent sure he would win, but still. This is Fairy Tail we're talking about, despite his ability to hide his emotions, he should have known they would've got him.

It was a rainy Tuesday night after the Fantasia parade. Gajeel, being the antisocial new member, was still only beginning to get used to the guild's craziness. He was thinking of going on a job but decided it would be best to go tomorrow.

He would never admit it but despite everyone's craziness they were beginning to grow on him. Even Salamander and him got on better relations after their fight with the lightning bastard. He was still annoying as hell but they were at least able to have a civilized conversation without beating each other up. Well... sometimes.

The only person Gajeel made an effort to avoid was Fira. He learned long ago why she was given the name "Lady Madness" (but since he refused to address her formally he dropped the 'lady' part). Tatania might be the violent one in the guild but even she did not have Madness's sadistic nature. Tatania used threats and intimidation to get a point across. Madness went straight to pain. Gajeel learned that the hard way after he shook her awake (bad mistake) and she sent her fist into his stomach so hard that he coughed up blood. She then proceeded to stand over him and glare him down as he groaned in agony.

That's also the day he learned never to bother her when she's sleeping.

Thankfully for him, she had left a few minutes earlier to go home.

"Hey Gajeel, want to join our game?" Salamander's question came out of nowhere, interrupting his train of thought.

If he had asked that a week ago, the answer would have been a definite no.

But for some reason he asked "What kind of game?"

"It's a try not to laugh game. When it's your turn everyone else tries to get you to laugh. You can laugh at you're own joke but you can't laugh at anyone else's. If we can't get you to laugh, you win."

Gajeel was about to ask why he wanted him to join out of all people before Salamander leaned over and whispered that it was Juvia's idea to ask him.

He saw her sitting with Bunny Girl and Stripper, waiting for the fire dragon slayer to return.

Leave it to Juvia to try and get him to interact with the other members.

"Fine."

Maybe joining one game would finally get the Rain Woman to stop bugging him.

So he walked over to the other's table and sat down in between the water mage and Bunny Girl.

"So who wants to go first?" the celestial mage asked.

* * *

After Bunny Girl cracked up over Salamander's imitation of a drunk Makarov, Juvia announced she would go next. She also declared that only Stripper was allowed to make her laugh.

The ice boy's response was to turn to Salamander and ask "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

"I dunno, why?"

"To get to the idiot's house."

The pink haired mage tilted his head in confusion. "I don't get it."

"Well then knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"The chicken."

Bunny Girl and Juvia broke into giggles, which turned into laughter when Salamander finally realized he had been played.

"WHAT THE HELL, GRAY?!" He snapped at the ice mage, who had began to laugh too.

Even Gajeel had to resist the urge to crack a grin.

The fire dragon slayer stomped onto the table, his fist engulfed in flames."YOU WANNA GO, POPSICLE HEAD?!"

His clothes having somehow disappeared, Stripper stood up to challenge him. "BRING IT ON, FIRE CLOWN!"

Before the two were able to duke it out, the celestial mage quickly grabbed both of them by the arm. "Can you two go for ten minutes without trying to kill each other?"

"He called me an idiot!"

"Well to be honest, neither of you are the sharpest tools in the shed so can you please wait till after the game to settle this?"

The two boys slugged back into their seats, still glaring at each other. Salamander stuck out his tongue and Stripper drew a line with his thumb across his neck in retort.

Now the only ones who haven't laughed yet were those two and Gajeel.

"Gray should go next."

"Why should I? You should go!"

"No, you!"

"You!"

"YOU!"

Bunny Girl face-palmed as fire and ice went at it again. "Really, guys? Why can't you guys just do rock, paper, scissors?"

"Maybe you can both go at the same time." Juvia suggested. "That way we can try to get both of you to laugh."

Salamander and Stripper stared at her for a moment then back at each other.

"Well I guess that'll work."

"I'm still going to kick your ass later."

"Anyway!" Bunny Girl interrupted. "I'll try first. What's the difference between outlaws and inlaws?" She paused. "The outlaws are wanted."

Salamander blinked. "I don't get it."

Stripper shrugged his shoulders. "I've heard that one before."

The blonde pouted in failure and Juvia took her turn. "I heard Gajeel tell this one to a few guys back in Phantom Lord. A man and a woman walk into a bar and-."

Before she could finish the joke, Gajeel slapped his hand over her mouth.

"Do NOT repeat that joke out loud!"

Juvia pulled his hand away. "But the others laughed when you told it. I thought Natsu and my darling Gray would find it funny too."

"Juvia, if I had known that you were listenin', I wouldn't have told it. There are kids here that should not hear stuff like that." He pointed to the table next to them where Romeo was sitting.

Juvia cast her gaze down, her sad frown making Stripper feel bad. "How about you just whisper it to me so no one else will hear?"

She immediately turned happy again, a slight pink blush appearing on her cheeks. She inched even closer to him and quietly told him the dirty joke.

But instead of the laugh she adored, Stripper's expression twisted into one of shock, regret, and disgust. Salamander stared with a look of concern.

"That bad?"

After the ice mage told him, their facial expressions became twins. He turned to Gajeel.

"You are seriously messed up, man."

"Oh gee, thanks." He replied sarcastically.

"Can I hear it?" Bunny Girl asked.

Salamander held her hand. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

She was smart and decided to take his word for it.

The girls tried giving more jokes with no success. Most of them were just not funny and the rest they had known already.

"Man this is hard, I can't think of anything good!" Bunny GIrl complained.

"Not even Gajeel has laughed at all."

"Juvia, Gajeel doesn't laugh at anything."

"Not if it ain't funny," the iron dragon slayer replied.

"You stay out of this!"

He sighed in annoyance and ignored the rest of her rambles. 'The guys back at Phantom used to play this all the time, there's gotta be one clean joke I can remember.'

"I've got somethin'."

"OH NO YOU DON'T."

"After what happened before, you're not allowed to make a joke!"

"Oh come on, it's not that kind of joke!"

"We don't trust you!"

"Use some common sense ya morons! If I didn't want Juvia to say the joke before, then why would I say one now?!"

As they blinked in realization, Gajeel mentally questioned the intelligence of every single person in this god forsaken guild.

'I am surrounded by idiots.'

"Alright fine then, just say it." Stripper told him.

"How do you keep a blonde girl busy for two days?"

"Excuse me?" Bunny Girl raised an eyebrow.

He ignored her. "Give her a piece of paper that says "turn over" on both sides."

He got three different reactions.

Juvia's eyes had widened in shock.

Bunny Girl had the most offended face you could imagine.

Stripper and Salamander had put their hands over their mouths in an attempt to suppress their laughter.

Gajeel grinned as they miserably failed.

"YOU LITTLE JERK!" Bunny Girl snapped.

"I'm a foot taller than you, what makes you think you can call me little?"

"YOU'RE NOT A FOOT TALLER THAN ME!"

"What are you, 4 foot 11?"

"I'M 5 FOOT 2!"

"Nine inches then, close enough."

Eventually, Salamander was able to calm her down and took out a lacrima powered timer. "Okay, we have 30 minutes to crack Gajeel or else he wins."

* * *

20 minutes passed and not even a smirk.

"Where the hell did your sense of humor go?"

"It's still here, I just have more self control than you guys."

They had tried pretty much everything they could think of, the closest they got was when Juvia blasted a jet of water into Salamander's face.

Now their attempts were just sad, Gajeel was beginning to get bored.

"You guys might as well give up, there's no way yer gettin' me to laugh."

"Oh no, we're not giving up." Salamander declared. "We still have...um...10 minutes. We'll think of something."

"Better think fast, time flies."

Juvia suddenly perked up drawing everyone's attention. But as soon as she opened her mouth to say something, the doors of the guild hall creaked open just as the thunder clapped.

Whoever hadn't been paying attention jumped at the bang and turned to see who had arrived.

'Oh great. She's back.'

Whom other to curse them with her presence than 'Lady' Madness herself. She walked in, clothes and hair dripping wet and with a less than cheery expression.

"Oh Fira, you're back." Mirajane greeted from behind the counter. "Everything alright?"

"Well long story short, I forgot my keys." She went over to the booth she had been sitting in and reached down to grab her keychain from off the seat. "Must have fallen out of my back pocket."

After she secured them in the pocket of her jacket, she turned to leave but her gaze got caught on their table.

"What are you guys up to?" She asked heading over.

"We're just playing a try not to laugh game. But we can't get Gajeel to laugh. We still have 8 minutes...to..." Salamander stopped talking as Fira walked right passed him, right over to Gajeel.

'Why can't this damn psycho leave me alone?'

"What do ya want, Madness?" He growled. She didn't answer him, not surprisingly, just continued to glare down at him with those cold, golden eyes.

This feeling of being looked down on was getting on his last nerve. And once his patience ran out, he kicked back his chair and rose to face her (but of course she was still looking down at him since he was shorter than her).

"Alright, what's yer deal?! You wanna fight or-!" Before Gajeel could finish his sentence, Madness roughly grabbed him by his shirt as shoved him into the wall. The other members were now watching the spectacle, wondering what he had done to offend her this time.

But he hadn't done anything so what the hell?

"Madness, what are you doing?"

She said not a word, but the corners of her mouth lifted into a grin that could only be described as evil.

And it sent a shiver up his spine.

What she did next happened so fast, he didn't get any chance to resist. And before he knew it, he was lying on his back. Madness had caught both his arm in a hold and pinned them above his head. She also had crossed her legs around his so he couldn't kick her.

He soon recognized this as one of her wrestling moves, immobilizing her opponent and using her free hand to land as many punches on them until they submitted.

'Well crap.'

"What the hell, Madness? Let go of me!" He attempted to pull free from her grasp, but part of him told himself it was no use. He had seen a few of her MMA fights back before he found out she was a Fairy Tail wizard. Even with her wizard jobs, she has reigned undefeated for 5 years straight.

Yeah, there was no way he was getting out of this.

"So this is a try not to laugh challenge, I hear." She said. "You know, I've never heard you laugh before."

"Well if gettin' me to laugh is what yer tryin' to do, it ain't workin'!"

"Oh no, I haven't started that part yet. I just did this to make sure you can't escape."

That made him a bit uneasy. "Escape from what?"

Gajeel regretted asking that.

He regretted joining the game in the first place.

"From this." Madness looked right into his eyes as she moved her free hand over to his stomach.

And began to tickle him.

'Oh no!'

If you could metaphorically describe the thing that kept in a person's laughter as a glass wall, it shattered.

Shattered into a million pieces.

'Oh god f*****g no!'

Now the only thing he was able to do was yell out a few cries of protest before erupting into wild, uncontrollable laughter.

* * *

Top five things Gajeel hates.

5\. Being hungry.

4\. Being looked down on.

3\. Salamander

2\. Madness

1\. Being tickled.

And Madness did just that to him for 10 minutes.

10\. Torturous. Minutes.

And he thought being punched in the stomach was bad. Oh no, that did not hold a candle to this.

Now he was lying on the floor, feeling pretty violated, clutching his sides trying to rid his nerves of the tickling sensation.

'Is this what death by laughter feels like?'

So much for don't laugh game. Both his throat and his stomach hurt from laughing so much.

And of course Madness was standing above him, still with that sinister grin, taking much joy from his distress.

'I swear to god, if she says anything about me looking like a-."

"Aww, you look like a little damsel in distress."

"Shut the hell up! How did you know, anyway?"

"Well I saw you sleeping in the guild hall the other day. For the record you look like a tiny kitten when you're asleep." She ignored Gajeel's angry growl. "So I just started poking your sides and your reactions gave it away."

"You poked me when I was asleep?!" He snarled.

"You looked cute."

"I'M NOT CUTE!"

Now she had began laughing, no doubt mocking him, but that's when he realized she wasn't the only one. And when he turned his head, he saw that many of the other members (most notably Salamander) were also laughing at him. The rest were still looking on in shock as they had just witnessed the reveal of a once kept secret, that Gajeel Redfox, the same guy that destroyed their old guild and almost killed a bunch of their comrades, was ticklish.

By now said dragon slayer's face was as red as Tatania's hair.

Madness managed to make it more humiliating by crouching down next to him and draping an arm over his shoulder. "Don't try denying it, you definitely look cute when you're embarrassed."

"You're gonna pay for this."

"Uh huh, sure. Have fun with that." She leaned closer to whisper into his ear. "But just remember, we will never let you hear the end of this. Not. Ever."

If Gajeel thought he couldn't get any more embarrassed, he was dead wrong since Madness began to ruffle his hair, as if he was a tiny kitten.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail, bro."

"I hate you."

"Aww, I hate you too."

 **Thanks for reading and please review. I'll be posting more stories but don't expect them too soon. It takes me FOREVER to write stuff.**


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